Operation Red Flare 2008

This year’s ‘Operation Red Flare’, held over the weekend 1st–2nd March 2008 and organised by Croydon District Scout Council, was won by a team from Belmont Explorer Scout Unit (Sutton District).

The event, now in its 44th year, is a 12-mile hike at night with activities (incidents) at checkpoints along the way. A new route is devised each year and teams have no idea of where they are going until they check in at the start, which this year was at Polyapes Scout Campsite near Cobham.

Altogether there were 25 teams of 4–7 Explorer Scouts, Ranger Guides, and Scout Network members, most of whom were fairly local, to compete.

Activities included climbing over tyres suspended between trees, finding 20 things to put in a matchbox, shear-lashing canes together to remotely trigger a mouse trap, constructing an A-frame to cross a stream, throwing a weighted line to rescue a person from a body of water and getting the whole team over a rickety fence without touching it. The route was 12½ miles long and circular, starting and finishing at Polyapes Scout Campsite.

Points were awarded for navigation, speed, the activities and a pre-start kit check. Twenty-three teams completed the challenge; the other two teams retired before the finish.

The table below shows a summary of the scores. Note that the time figures used are totals of the times taken to navigate the course and the times taken to complete the tasks. A full score sheet (68KBytes PDF) is also available.

Place	Team	Time	Points	Bases	Tasks	Total
Belmont ESU 'B'	1st	4:58	252	150	129	531
Voyager ESU	2nd	5:18	232	150	128	510
Double Dragon 'B'	3rd	5:26	224	150	124	498
Sutton ESU	4th	5:31	219	150	115	484
Arrowhead ESU 'A'	5th	6:11	179	150	124	453
Romans Network	6th	6:27	163	150	125	438
Raynes Park ESU	7th	6:23	167	150	118	435
Phoenix Network 'A'	8th	6:27	163	150	108	421
Ruskin ESU	9th	6:42	148	150	121	419
Severndroog 'B'	10th	7:11	119	150	128	397
Scott ESU 'A'	11th	7:19	111	150	117	378
Belmont ESU 'A'	12th	7:29	101	150	117	368
Cheam ESU	13th	7:45	85	150	131	366
Croham Valley	14th	8:06	64	150	128	342
Mitcham ESU 'C'	15th	7:06	124	120	91	335
Discovery ESU	16th	7:46	84	150	100	334
Kent East SS	17th	8:12	58	150	115	323
Mitcham ESU 'A'	18th	8:10	60	150	106	316
Mitcham ESU 'B'	19th	8:47	23	150	124	297
South Wallington RGU	20th	8:56	14	150	116	280
Woodcote RGU 'B'	21st	9:20	0	150	98	248
Arrowhead ESU 'B'	22nd	9:22	0	135	96	231
Woodcote RGU 'A'	23rd	9:46	0	120	91	211
Phoenix Network 'B'	24th	—	0	90	62	152
Colliers ESU	25th	—	0	90	60	150